1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input information processing apparatus for processing input information entered from a keyboard used in a POS system, a method therefore, and a program therefore. More particularly, the present invention relates to an input information processing apparatus for processing a device input entered from a physical keyboard and a screen keyboard based on a touch panel, a method therefore and a program therefore.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional POS system used in a supermarket or the like, a POS device unit having a barcode reading scanner, a card reader, an LCD, a keyboard and the like is separately arranged on a product checkout lane from a POS main body having a cash register. The POS device unit arranged on the checkout lane reads out product barcodes through the scanner, enters the number of goods with ten-keys and subjects the input to a calculation processing. When a product barcode reader is not provided, a unit price is derived by operating the screen keys, and the number of goods is entered through the ten-keys for calculation processing. In the conventional POS system as described above, the POS main body corresponds to the personal computer, to which individual devices of the device unit are cable-connected. The ten-keys are connected via the sasme device interface as the keyboard of the personal computer, and for the screen keyboard, it is connected via a mouse interface having a transfer rate higher than that of a keyboard.
In the conventional POS system as described above, however, the interface for the physical keyboard such as ten-keys and the interface for the screen keyboard comprising a touch panel provided on the LCD are separately provided, with furthermore different transfer rates. This causes a problem in that, when the physical keys and the screen keys are pressed in succession, notifications to the application are changed over in sequence. When managing the system by assigning numeral keys or multiplication key to the physical keyboard, and products to the screen keys, and a shopping basket contains three identical products, the operator operates keys in sequence of “3”, “×”, and then the “product key”. In this case, the route of the keyboard interface transmitting the key operation of the physical keys “3” and “×” is different from the route of the mouse interface communicating the operation of the screen key “product key”. Since the mouse interface has a higher transfer rate, a successive and rapid key operation may sometimes result in earlier arrival of the screen key at the application. For example, when entering three cucumbers and one Japanese radish, keys are pressed in a sequence of “3”, “×”, “cucumber” and “radish”. When entering a single piece of product, “1” and “×” can be omitted. In this case, input of the screen key “cucumber” may be notified earlier to the application than the physical keys “3” and “×”, resulting in a sequence of “cucumber”, “3”, “×”, and then “radish”, leading to a sale of a single cucumber and three radish. In order to avoid an error in which a changed-over sequence of key operations is notified to the application, it is inevitable to slowly conduct successive key operations, this in turn causing a problem of operability.
Operation of the screen keyboard is transmitted to the application by the mouse interface upon pressing and then releasing the key. The response from the application to the key operation is therefore felt dull.
A click sound is given for a key operation to beat rhythm. When alternately operating the physical and screen keys by causing the both interfaces to have the same transfer rate, response sounds for the individual key operations are ill-timed, this leading to a problem of a more difficult operation resulting from the ill-timed tempo. Furthermore, when the finger is shifted while being in touch with the screen keyboard, the key data of the key from which the finger is released is notified to the application, as if the screen key at the shift position were pressed, thus causing a problem in that a malfunction occurs for a quick operation of the screen keyboard.